Minecraft breaks XBLA sales record, Fez developer claims favouritism

Minecraft has broken the record for most first-day sales on Xbox Live Arcade.

Mojang's world-creation sim has smashed the record recently set by Trials Evolution. The game was said to have reclaimed development costs within an hour of going on sale, according to creator Markus 'Notch' Perrson.

The news appears to have upset Fez developer Polytron, however, who claim that the Minecraft team has received preferential treatment, reports Eurogamer.

The two companies were involved in a series of back and forth tweets, with the Fez team asking how Perrson obtained sales stats so quickly and why they were allowed free updates.

"How did you get those stats from MS? We still don't know exactly how much Fez sold almost a month later. You get stats in 24 hours?" tweeted Polytron.

Notch replied: "What? Really? I thought it was standard procedure! That sucks. :("

"Standard procure [sic] is: you find out how much you sold when you get your first check 3-4 months later. You're also getting free updates which is something every other developer on the platform is told is simply not an option," Polytron explained, before Notch revealed that his team only negotiated a limited number of updates.

It was later revealed that the figures were obtained via leaderboard participation, which prompted Polytron to tweet the following: "Minecraft did not get preferencial treatment regarding sale stats. just for the free updates!"